Many companies such as Amazon with their Digital Text Publishing Platform, and Barnes and Noble with their PubIT program, have been dominating the market place for self-publishing. Even Apple is getting into the game lately with their new pilot program and are building a self publishing portal for newspapers and magazines. Borders is now getting into the publishing game in conjunction with Book Brewer to provide a unique independent publishing experience.
The new program from Borders allows authors to (for a low fee of $90.00) publish on their platform. This fee dispenses an official ISBN number for your soon to be bestseller. They also have a higher tier package for $200.00 that allows you to create an ePub version of your book, to which you retain full rights! This means you can also sell the ebook on other platforms.
Users can develop and edit content regardless of length, set their own suggested price within bounds set by retailers, and publish via BookBrewer in the Borders’ eBook store. Customers are provided with the option to purchase, download, and instantly read blogger and independent author content on several leading devices, including the iPhone, iPad, Android -powered tablets as well as a variety of eReaders, notably the Kobo Wireless eReader, Kobo eReader, Aluratek Libre Pro and Velocity Micro Cruz™ Reader.
Mike Edwards, CEO of Borders, Inc. said that by using the program, “authors can quickly and easily load, format and publish content, which will then be available for sale within a few days on Borders.com and other major eBook outlets. We’re excited to give new writers and bloggers an opportunity to reach an expanded audience as they make their foray into digital.” The agreement with BookBrewer moves Borders into the self-publishing space, but with a different spin than its competitors. Barnes & Noble’s newly launched PubIt!, for example, lets authors post an existing e-book to its site for free and splits royalties, while Borders is charging a fee to help authors create an e-book.
“Everyone has a story to tell, pictures to share or advice to give. It turns out that those are exactly the kinds of things people want to buy and read as eBooks,” said BookBrewer CEO Dan Pacheco. “We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to work with an iconic brand like Borders, which not only has an incredible customer base, but also has a great local community focus.”
BookBrewer is a new startup company that is also a subsidiary of Boulder, Colo.-based startup FeedBrewer, Inc. They mainly provide the software that Borders will be using. Basically, their new program allows for two huge selling points, one is the simplicity of use. The service, in one click, allows you to create an ebook and create a cover graphic for the book cover.
The other more important factor is that it allows you to create an ebook via an RSS feed. Webmasters and authors can easily intergrate the RSS feed as the text for the ebook and start selling it on Borders new platform. Many authors already first cut their teeth into writing via a Blog, the Jack Daniels series of books where with the loyal following they develop, it’s easy to transition into ebooks. Same goes with early Rhiannon Frater books on Zombies. It will even allow traditional blogs to publish weekly or monthly editions to allow people who do not get a chance every day to read their favorite tech blog (we hope yours is Good e-Reader! ) or are on vacation or traveling.
The RSS feature is probably the most exciting facet of this new partnership, no word yet on whether the program will accept only American authors, like Amazons Blog to Kindle Program. It is also more expensive than other services, Amazons DTP program is pretty well free, and you only give Amazon a cut of the book sales.
This new program will launch on October 25th 2010 and you can get more information or sign up for the program at borders.bookbrewer.com
Via Press Release
Update: Oct 16 2010
We have tons of new information and updates regarding the Get Published program, click HERE for tons of new info.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
